Stephen Hawking- the renowned theoretical physicist since Sir Issac Newton and Albert Einstein has died peacefully at his Cambridge home at the early hours on March 14, 2018. He is famous worldwide for his best-selling book A Brief History of Time for 237 weeks and has sold over 10 million copies -- about one copy for every 750 men, women and children on earth.
Stephen Hawking wondered: "was there a beginning of time? Could time run backward? Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries? These are some of the questions considered in A Brief History of time which begins by reviewing the great theories of the cosmos from Newton to Einstein, before delving into secrets which still lie at the heart of space and time."
His scientific works include collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of General Relativity and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation.
He said, on one occasion, with humor that 'black home is not that black that has been painted black.' Hawking was the first scientist to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.
Born in oxford in 1942, exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo, Hawking was once asked to comment if there was any mysterious co-relation between Galileo's death and his birth. Hawking smiled and ruled out such possibility with the argument that on that particular moment of his birth, thousands of other children were also born. He further said that it was simply a co-incidence.
Hawking began his schooling at the Byron House School in Highgate, London. Although known at school as "Einstein", Hawking was not initially successful academically. With time, he began to show considerable aptitude for scientific subjects and decided to study mathematics at the University College, Oxford. For the first 18 months, he was bored and lonely---he found the academic 'ridiculously easy'.
His Physics teacher said "It was only necessary for him to know that something could be done, and he could do it without looking to see how other people did it. Inspired by Roger Penrose's theorem of a space-time singularity in the center of black holes, Hawking applied the same thinking to the entire Universe; and during 1965, he wrote his thesis on his topics. Hawking thesis was approved in 1966 and having received a research fellowship at Gonvile and Caius College, he obtained his Ph. D degree in applied mathematics and theoretical physics.
Specializing in general relativity and cosmology, in March 1966, and his essay titled 'Singularities and the Geometry of Space-Time' shared top honors with one by Penrose to win that year's prestigious Adams Prize.
In his early twenties, when he was a Ph.D. student, he was diagnosed as having Lateral Sclerosis, Know in the U.K. as Motor Neurons Disease in 1964. He was given only few months for survival from the ravages of disease. In magical miracle he was given a new lease of life and lived up to 76 years of age until his death on March 14, 2008.
In spite of his physical handicap he pursued his research work with renewed vigor and conviction for shaping him as 'Einstein' of the modern age permanently stationed in a high-tech wheel chair specially designed with all sophisticated gadgets innovated by the wonders of science.
Having lost his power of speech due to disease which virtually paralyzed him, he was aided with a computer controlled voice synthesizer and delivered his valued speeches at the universities around the world. Despite being in debilitating health condition, with the formidable spirit and power of will within, he has had once the occasion of experiencing zero-G situation at certain high altitude at the aircraft specially maneuvered for his zero-G feeling experiment.
In the late 1970s, Hawking was elected Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. In 1981, he proposed that information in a black hole is irretrievably lost when a black hole evaporates. Initially the no-boundary proposal of the universe predicated a close universe, which had implications about the existence of God. As Hawking explained, if the universe had no boundaries but is self contained, then God would not have had any freedom to choose how the universe began.
Hawking, however, did not rule out the existence of a Creator, asking in A Brief History of Time "Is the unified theory so compelling that it brings about its own existence?" In his early work, Hawking spoke of God in a metaphorical sense. In A Brief History of Time he wrote further: "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reasoning -- for then we should know the mind of God".
He further suggested that the existence of God was not necessary to explain the origin of the universe. Later discussions with Neil Turok led him to the realization that the existence of God was also compatible with an open universe.
Hawking continued his writings for a popular audience, publishing Universe in a Nutshell in 2001 and a "A Briefer History of Time", which he wrote in 2005 with Leonard Mlodinow to update his earlier works with the aim of making accessible to a wider audience, and God created the Integers which appeared in 2006, Grand Design (2010) with Leonard Mlodinow.
In good humor, during the time of publication of A Briefer History Time, Hawking said, that was his last attempt to make the history of time briefer for the readers to grasp its meaning and spirit at ease. He would not be liable, if A Briefer History of Time is not understood by the readers, he said in equal humor.
A highly acclaimed man not only in the world of science, in 2002, following a U.K-wide vote, the BBC included Hawking in their list of the 100 Greatest Britons.
He was awarded the Copley Medal from the Royal Society (2006), the Presidential Medal of Freedom which is America's highest civilian honor (2009) and the Russian Special Fundamental Physics prize (2013) on July 20, 2015 Hawking helped launch Break Through initiatives, an effort to search for extraterrestrial New Earth, a documentary on space colonization, as a 2017 episode of Tomorrow's world.
Stephen Hawking cherished his desire about the survival of human race with scientific wisdom for millions of years, if not on the planet earth but on some other locations in the deep space where the probability of surviving life on any earth-like celestial body is not at all bleak.
With the sad demise of this great scientist, the world has lost a truly brilliant mind and a rare bred who is acclaimed as the great scientist since Newton and Einstein. 300 years after the death of Galileo, Stephen Hawking was born. I wonder if another 300 years will be needed to have a scientist and a genius of his parallel. His work and legacy will be long remembered. May his departed soul rest in eternal peace!
The writer is a former civil servant
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